Keep Good Records for a Less Taxing Tax Season

Let’s face it; bookkeeping is the last thing that any small business owner wants or has time to do. But maintaining well-organized books and records is a crucial part of running a successful business, not to mention that it’s required by the IRS. Fortunately, there are online tools available that can help you reduce your bookkeeping burden. Using Shoeboxed.com, Outright.com, FreshBooks and Bill.com to organize and securely store your records, and streamline other number-crunching tasks will not only help you monitor the progress of your business, but it will also make for a less taxing tax season!

Shoeboxed.com: Mail your receipts and important records to Shoeboxed for scanning, data entry, and secure online organization and storage. From your online account, download Excel and CSV spreadsheets, PDF reports, and QuickBooks and Quicken files, and seamlessly export data to other web applications. Shoeboxed meets the IRS requirements for electronic storage systems, which means that you don’t have to keep the hard copies after processing, and even offers a free shred-and-recycle option.

Outright.com: Sync your Outright.com account with Shoeboxed, FreshBooks, PayPal, your bank account, and other sources to automate your bookkeeping. At tax time, Outright calculates quarterly estimated taxes, automatically populates your Schedule C, and even requests Form W-9 from contractors and freelancers and files Form 1099-MISC on their behalf.

FreshBooks: Use FreshBooks for fast, simple and professional-quality invoicing. Snag receipts directly from Shoeboxed to bill clients for expenses, keep track of overdue invoices, and automatically export paid invoices to Outright.com where income is tracked. Harvest is another excellent invoicing tool for small business owners.